Posts Tagged ‘Overlord’

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Most games that put you into the shoes of the bad guys are about reveling in evil, gleefully causing havoc and destruction like a toddler who’s got into the stationary box. Obsidian’s RPG Tyranny [official site] is different.

“I find a lot of fiction that centers around good versus evil tends to be unsatisfying, as evil always exists as a strawman for the ill-prepared underdogs to beat up with the power of naïve violence and good intentions,” says Matt MacLean, narrative designer for Tyranny. “I think video games often try too hard to make sure you don’t relate to your victims, and so villains are made unrelentingly villainous, and allies are made into some combination of saccharine hangers-on or tear-jerker red-shirts waiting to be killed in order to shock you into thinking death means serious storytelling.”

But how did it all work out, and what new cruelties will the upcoming expansion expose us to?

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Good news: Codemasters teasing a new Overlord game has not lead up to the announcement of a free-to-play mobile game where you build minion hives, harvest fungus, and farm sheep (any Overlord worth their salt steals sheepies, for one thing). Disappointing news: the newly-announced Overlord: Fellowship of Evil [official site] is not the proper Overlord sequel you might be hoping for. Descriptive news: it’s a class-based, co-op-oriented action-RPG more about getting in and fighting yourself than leading armies of minions.

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There’s some fondness for old man Overlord ’round these parts, isn’t there? I mean, no-one’s filing it alongside Deus Ex or anything, but it was a jolly enough time, as I recall. Herding malevolent imps around, wanton cruelty for comic effect, being disparaging about humanity, that sort of thing. The hitherto two-game series is about to make some manner of comeback, depending on how much you want to read into cryptic teasing. Though it’s about as overt as cryptic can be.Read the rest of this entry »

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Humbly I present to you, our bundle of readers, this week’s Humble Weekly Bundle. It concerns seven games from venerable Brit publisher Codemasters, which are on average Quite Good. Racing! Man-shooting! Very sweary man-shooting! Imp-herding! An ARPG I’ve never played! More racing! More imp-herding!Read the rest of this entry »

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First there was Overlord, and now there is two of it. Codemasters, that great British institution, has announced a sequel to the “play-as-evildoer-but-not-really” game in which you commanded a swarm of pleasant goblins. It was the fantasy orcs ‘n’ axes variation of Pikmin, something like that, and it had some entertaining bits. But will there be entertaining bits in the sequel? Codies seem to think so:
“Epic battles, all new Minion play mechanics, a stunningly detailed new visuals and a fresh theme – Overlord II’s really packing a punch,” says Lennart Sas, director and Overlord lead at Triumph Studios. “We’re really excited about shifting the world to a new era where a Roman-inspired Empire rises as the arch-enemy of the Overlord.” Woo, pseudo-Romans.

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It’s easy to fall into a routine dichotomy here. New games some days, retro games other days. Unfortunately, that rather ignores games from the last couple of years, which don’t fit neatly into either category. Let’s change that.

I find myself currently between games to really occupy me – an unfortunate hangover from the MMO mania of a couple of years back, which has left a part of my brain forever desiring a game I can utterly lose myself to for months at a time. With my third major bout of intense TF2 play, my most recent distraction, now behind me, I survey the landscape and there’s nothing huge I can imagine spending a few deep-seated weeks with, at least not until Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3. So, instead I turn to the very recent past. I’ve been snacking briefly on games I’ve wanted to replay or never got around to playing, and I suspect it’ll lead to a few posts like this. First, Overlord.Read the rest of this entry »

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While it didn’t make an enormous immediate splash, Age of Wonders veterans Triumph Studio’s Overlord was a quirky and agreeable Pantomime-Dame of a Fable vs Pikmin Evil-em-up (Or So Sez I!). And it’s done well enough to get some extra content, with a downloadable pay-for expansion called Raising Hell. It adds a new level to each of its worlds which opens up upon defeating its ruler, which leads to – well – Hell.

It also include a Challenge pack of extra-tricky challenges for the £4.99 or (er) 10 Euros it charges. These are actually both the X360 downloadable content packs. But, agreeably cheaper. Hurrah! And the trailer for these demonic adventures can be found in the stygian underworld below…Read the rest of this entry »